Advocating for the right of consenting adults to share and enjoy love, sex, residence, and marriage without limits on the gender, number, or relation of participants. Full marriage equality is a basic human right.

Yes, wrong. How many people have been attracted to a sibling's lover/partner/spouse? How many people attracted to women have wanted a mother and daughter? Or sisters? How many people attracted to men have wanted a father and son? Or brothers? Plenty. And sometimes they are wanted back.

Monday, February 27, 2017

If you believe consenting adults should have their rights, please sign this petition
now! Share the link with other people who want to support civil rights
and human rights in general, who think it is outrageous or just plain
wasteful to prosecute and imprison adults for loving each other.

Under the First Amendment, government can’t pass laws that are
intended to restrict religious liberty. Such laws are not at stake in
this discussion. However, state and local laws that accidentally
impinge on religious liberty — zoning laws, health and safety laws,
etc., criminal statutes, laws against polygamy — have been allowed as
long as those laws at least have a rational basis.

Under SB 129, however, a mere “rational basis” would no longer be
sufficient. Laws that impinge accidentally on religious liberty would be
allowed ONLY when those laws advance a “compelling governmental
interest.”

Bookman points out the history of denying the polygamous freedom to marry.

Peter Nash Swisher, a national expert in family law and a professor at the University of Richmond Law School, has looked at the issue
and is very dubious about whether such a compelling interest can be
found. With recent Supreme Court decisions combined with state and
federal RFRAs, ” … proponents of polygamous marriage now have, in my
opinion, a very strong case for validating polygamous marriages on
cultural, religious, and constitutional grounds.

As Swisher notes, the Old Testament is full of instances of polygamy,
and the Muslim faith allows a man to have as many as four wives. Martin
Luther, the founder of Protestantism, “observed that polygamy does not
contradict Scripture, and so cannot be prohibited by Christianity.”

There are ordained ministers ready and eager to perform same-gender weddings, polyamorous weddings, polygamous weddings, and consanguinamorous weddings. If a state truly wants to support religious freedom, it will support full marriage equality.

First of all, I would just like to say thank you for writing this article. Being in a consanguineous relationship myself, I finally decided to look this up. This has been very encouraging to me and I even cried while reading it. I would like to share my story to possibly help others facing the same difficulties as myself.

You're quite welcome, Anonymous, and we're glad it is helpful. You an also contact us as fullmarriageequality at yahoo dot com.

Ever since childhood I have been in a close relationship with my sister. We share all the same interests and do everything together. We’ve never enjoyed being with someone else as much as we’ve enjoyed each other’s company. We literally spend all our time together and hardly ever disagree about anything. Others have noticed how well we get along and even have stated how they wished their children could get along that well.

As we grew, we became drawn to each other, not out of sexual attraction, or even for experimentation. The amount of love we had for each other was impossible to ignore, like a very strong magnet. By the time we were young teens we were already kissing.

This is where I would like to clarify that we are both female. However, we are NOT lesbians. We are not attracted to women, and never will be. We are both attracted to men. Growing up we even shared the same crushes on guys. Whenever we interacted with each other in a intimate way, we treated it like we were just having fun.

If I had to label this, I would call this being heteroflexible, but it is up to people to explain themselves if and how they want.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Valentine's Day is here again. Many people will be getting married. Married people
will be celebrating their anniversaries, or simply having a night out,
as will other people hoping to get married someday, or maybe just
enjoying being together in public.

If you are in such a situation, good for you and enjoy it.

Whether
you are or not, take a moment to think about all of the people who can’t marry the person or person(s) they love, or can’t so much as hold
hands in public without being accosted. Think about the people,
consenting adults, who have to completely hide their relationships
because they could be sent to prison for simply having sex in private.
Think about the people who have to hide who they are because, where they
live, they could be killed for being who they are. Think about the
people who can’t accept gifts from their their lover(s) at work, or even
a loving comment on their Facebook wall, because it would out them and
get them fired.

So enjoy Valentine's Day if you are able, but think for a moment about the people who will only be able to fully enjoy theirs when we have full marriage equality so that an adult, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, or religion, is free to share love, sex, residence, and marriage with any and all consenting adults without prosecution, persecution, or discrimination. Help make it happen sooner rather than later.

Do you have special plans? Or, if you're reading this after Valentine's Day, do you have anything special to report? If so, comment below. Remember, you can comment anonymously.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

We last updated this case three years ago in this posting. If you follow the links, you'll see that although the reporting is vague, from what little we were told, it appears that this was likely a case of consensual (to be redundant) sex as the age of consent in Nevada is 16, and based on the charges that were and were not filed. The parole would seem to back that up. If this had been an assault, then such a relatively (no pun intended) quick parole would be outrageous.

OKAY.... I was going to go ahead and publish this but, before I did, I did some of my own basic searching, and it turns out that this was with his daughter, who apparently wrote "romantic" messages to him (which became evidence and prompted the investigation in the first place). At the sentencing, she expressed how much turmoil had been brought into her life, but it seemed like that could have been referring to the criminal prosecution rather than the sex. I wonder what her thoughts about everything are now? This could very well be a situation involving Genetic Sexual Attraction, meaning he didn't raise her. We aren't told one way or the other if he did. Romantic letters don't really strike me as something that would be involved if he raised her and had custody, because they would have been used to face-to-face talking. One of the questions I have now is who is the person who claimed to find the romantic letter in Hughes' home and turned it over to police? We know from an earlier report that someone by the name of Kimberly Harphant, an "acquaintance" of Hughes turned in evidence. Who is she? And what were her concerns? The 17-year-old's mother? A girlfriend or wife to Hughes unrelated to the 17-year-old? A daughter or stepdaughter of Hughes?

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

This has been added to our Discredited Arguments page, which you'll find to be very helpful in answering the usual arguments that are really flimsy attempts to justify prejudice.NOT EVEN ARGUMENTS: 1) Labeling or describing
something, even accurately, is NOT an argument. For example, saying
"That's homosexuality!" does not make a claim as to why it shouldn't be
allowed or why it should be discriminated against. 2) Stating an opinion,
such as that something is "wrong" or "immoral" is not an argument,
either. It indicates WHAT someone thinks, but not WHY. 3) Claiming to
have made an accurate prediction that someone would want their rights, such as "I said this would happen!" isn't an argument. 4) Appealing to the very law in question,
by saying "It's illegal!" isn't an argument (and, it isn't always true,
either, depending on location.) The very thing being argued is whether
something should be illegal or otherwise discriminated against.

This blog has featured scores ofexclusive interviewswith lovers are denied the freedom to be open about their love
and are, by law, denied the freedom to marry and have that marriage
treated
equally under the law.Themaninterviewed belowis, and was, clearly able to consent to his relationships. Along with hisspouse, he should be free to decidewhether or not to legally marry another spouse, yet they are denied this right could be harassed and persecuted if they were open about their love for another.
They are consenting adults who aren't hurting anyone; why should they be denied
their rights? In Utah, they could be criminally prosecuted for their love. In any US state and many countries, they would violate the law if they filed another marriage license with another spouse.Read the interview below and
see for yourself what he has to say. You may think his relationships are shocking, interesting, or you might find them to be ideal, but whatever your reaction,
should these lovers be denied equal access to marriage or any other rights?

This is one of the longest interviews this blog has featured, as our subject has much to share. If you're curious about polyamory or plural marriage, you'll find much insight herein.

(PLEASE NOTE that our interview subject has chosen "Cowboy" as a pseudonym. This relates to his profession, and is in no way referencing the "cowboy" term used in polyamory and ethical nonmonogamy communities.)

*****FULL MARRIAGE EQUALITY: Tell us about yourself.

Cowboy: As you drive to my house you will leave the city and drive down a rural road passed many beautiful homes until you end up at my ranch. Like my name suggests, I am a rancher. And for those of you that don’t know what the life of a rancher is, it’s quite simple. I go to work when its dark and I come home from work when it’s dark. I work no matter what the weather is like. But I prefer the sunny days the most.

I haven’t always been a rancher or always lived in the country. I went to school and got an Electronics Engineering degree and worked for some of the biggest companies in the U.S. making more money then I knew what to do with. I was single at the time and loved it. Well. No. The truth is that I loved the money. The only problem was I never spent any of it because I lived at work. I would eat all my meals, shower and sleep at work. It wasn’t my choice, of course. It was because I was on call all the time. I never had a day off. I was like a robot.

But I realized that I didn't have a life. So I decided to change careers and went into construction. Have you ever been in a Home Depot? How about a Staples? I have built so many different things, from Home Depot to Staples to mansions. But the same thing happened. I would just travel the country building places for everyone else to enjoy.

I realized that I wanted to have a family. But not just have a family. I wanted to be there for my family no matter what. That why I got into ranching. It was because I wanted a family and to be there for them. Besides ranching, I have written about a lot of things including polyamory. I am currently working on two books. One is about polygamy and the other is a book which is part of a program to help children overcome mental health issues like anxiety without medication. I’m constantly pouring over medical information.

I am 5'10" with brown hair and hazel eyes. If I wear green clothes my eyes turn green. If I wear brown clothes they turn brown. I’m Spanish, Cherokee Indian, with some Irish in me, all of which are very important to me. My heritage means the world to me and I want to pass it on.

I try my best to stay grounded and connected to what really matters to me. But if it helps you understand things, I have sacrificed so my children won’t ever have to worry about anything. If you see me around it will be in a pair of nice jeans and shirt.

I have eight brothers and sisters. Well, actually, seven. One of my brothers died a few years back. I have two small baby boys and one on the way. I am also married to a wonderful girl who loves me. For the life of me, I don’t know why. Kidding. I live with my pregnant wife and our boys.

I love nature and the outdoors. If you ever want to find me, start there.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Q. My husband and I recently discovered that our
closest friends (another couple) are having an open relationship. They
say they are “polyamorous.”

Did they actually say their relationship is open? Some polyamorous relationships are closed, but people hear the word and they think "open relationship."

I am having a very hard time
accepting this.

How does this change the letter writer's life?

They were in our wedding, and we were in theirs. In the
last 10 years I can’t remember having a single disagreement with them,
but I can’t seem to get past this.

Really? So much history, getting along so well, being so close, and this is just too much?

They didn’t even tell us about it. We found out because the husband
was hanging all over another woman very publicly at their annual party.
My husband found out what was really going on through another longtime
friend.

Could that be what was really upsetting? That this letter writer thought this couple was so close but didn't discuss this with them?

Full Marriage Equality

About This Blog

I argue for marriage equality. By that I mean that society and all local, state, federal, and international laws, institutions, and programs should recognize any marriage registered by any persons without restrictions on the basis of race, color, creed, ancestry, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.

The global definition of marriage should be as follows: "The uniting of consenting individuals in a witnessed ceremony."

We believe everyone has the right to share love, sex, residence, and marriage with any and all consenting adult(s) of their choice, regardless of birth or sexual orientation.

The Fine Print

The focus of this blog is consenting adults. This blog does not advocate anyone engage in activity that is currently illegal in their jurisdiction; it does advocate changing or repealing any law that prevents the freedom of association, love, and full marriage equality for adults. This blog condemns rape, sexual assault, and child molestation, and frowns in the general direction of cheating. This blog exists mainly to evaluate information and direct others to information about current events; it does not provide medical, therapeutic, legal, financial, or cooking advice. This blog links to other sites for informational purposes; it does not necessarily support everything at those links.